Forbes columnist Steven Salzberg and author-investigator Joe Nickell will each be awarded the 2012 Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking, to be presented by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry at the CFI Summit in October.

We cannot claim that a single person or group is behind these changes; to do so is to neglect the hundreds and thousands of people who have raised their
voices in many different ways. It takes more than a Facebook group, or a spokesperson, or even a whole newspaper to keep momentum going when it comes to
public health—particularly with a solution to preventable deaths that has gained unnecessary and dangerous levels of controversy. While I usually despair
when it comes to mainstream media’s coverage of pseudoscientific claims, particularly when it comes to eager attitudes about (false) balance, I’ve been
personally overawed by the support for vaccinations on a number of fronts. Here’s a few of the highlights.

Basically it started because I was searching for a childcare centre in NSW and became aware of the loophole in the law. I asked Sunday Telegraph editor
Mick Carroll and Daily Telegraph editor Paul Whittaker if they were keen to let me run a campaign. They were - so I assigned reporters led by Jane
Hansen to about thirty-five story ideas and we approached state and federal governments telling them what we were about to do. Neither had a commitment
to change the law so we started rolling out the stories from May 5th.

We ran approximately sixty stories and by two weeks later, NSW Opposition leader John Robertson and Tony Abbott both said they would
act. Robertson said he would introduce bills to parliament - whereupon premier Barry O'Farrell announced he'd put a plan to Cabinet that went even
further than Robertson's proposed bill. We are still campaigning for federal change - although Abbott is on board, we'd rather have legislation before
parliament than a promise.

We have copped a huge amount of vitriol and nastiness but also vast support from our readers. Our heartland is western Sydney, where the vast majority
of parents vaccinate. Their children's health is put at risk by parents in wealthy parts of Sydney where rates are much lower, and in 'alternative
lifestyle' areas like Byron Bay where rates are shockingly low.

We are proud to have changed the law but now we want to help change people's attitudes by continuing to report the facts about vaccinations - they save
lives.

On May 9 in the New South Wales House of Assembly, the Minister for Fair Trading, the Honourable Anthony Roberts, presented a speech in reply to the
question “What action is the Government taking to protect the community from being misled by the Australian Vaccination Network?” He outlined the
Government’s actions to finally enforce the change of the highly misleading name of the anti-vaccination group, the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN):

The Conversation website, known as an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community, ran an interview on the May
27, “Pneumococcal rates plunge after widespread vaccination of infants.” It was conducted by the editor, Sunanda Creagh, with Public Health Physician Clayton Chiu and Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases David Isaacs,
on the plunging rates of pneumococcal rates as a result of widespread vaccination. In it, they discussed the benefits of vaccinations, particularly
“because of the herd immunity we get in the community.”

“According to our federal Department of Health, there is a whooping cough epidemic in this country…it’s not hard to figure out why. In Australia, up to
one in five children in some regions are not fully immunised…Recent moves by NSW Labor Opposition Leader John Robertson and federal Liberal Opposition
Leader Tony Abbott to empower childcare centres to refuse care to unvaccinated children are a good start, but let’s go further. No parent should
receive tax benefits if they refuse to vaccinate their children.”

Content copyright CSI or the respective copyright holders. Do not redistribute without obtaining permission. Thanks to the ESO for the image of the Helix Nebula, also NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team for the image of NGC 3808B (ARP 87).